The Hocking sentinel. [volume] (Logan, Ohio) 1871-1906, 1887-02-24
Our Giddy Girls Abroad.

"One is well off in garret Mt 90"
sings the light-hearted Beranger; but
the newspapers tell other tales of the
workers in the great art centers. The
cheapncss of Europe is delusion and q
snare.
at is so only on condition of going
without things, of living abroad as one
would not think of living at home.
''fhe first time went abroad" lady
once told me, II had so little money
that l lay awake nights planning how /
could get through on it. | learned a
great deal, bat should think any one
fool now who did Us l did. 1gnor-
ance CT the risks ran was my excuse" J"
But there are numbers of those poor
students still in Europe, and the straits
to which they are reduced are often
pathetic. Especially The slender, black
ro5ed maidens, with their pale, eager
faces. their eyes So wide open to all the
wonder and cnchantmcnt of the old
world, SO veiiei to misconceptions Of
their own character, are pathetic fig
ures.
Sometimes they are pretty; almost al
! ways they have certain charm OF
bright-eyed independence. They are
usually older than they look; bu: many
are far too Young for the exposed and
peculiar life they lead.
Henry James has shetchcd the type in
his own fashion il "a Bundle OF Let
ters:" t.She looks at everything, goes
everywhere; passes her way, with her
clear, quiet eyes wide open, slSirting the
edge CT obscene abysses without sus-
pccting them; exciting. without know
ing It, the most injurious suspicious;
and always holding her course, passion
less, stainless, fearless"
Thc Germans sre kind TO these
strangers within their gates, but 10
themselves they make emphatic reflec-
tioas OF that barbarOus America whose
fathers 50 ship Of their daughters, wilc
spend their all on instruction and trust
SC luok TO get home.
Sometimes their trust is vain, and
recall one charming young woman vino
had stranded in Paris and was earning
. meager living as g copyist. Size had
come abroad TO study five years before,
and she was not likely to return soon.
She kept house Ike bird, uD four long
flights, and she frankly admitted her
| economies III bread and beei.
1t was picturesque, that little room,
with lis sunny window, its brick floor.
its walls lined with her pictures, but it
required some philosophy not to call
her isolation tempting of fate.
A word, too. shoJ.d be said, on the
growing fashion of sending girls abroad
to travel alone OF with only compa-
nion of their own age. 1t seems in
credible that persons who can afford
chaperouage for their daughters often
send them withou. it, trusting to luck
and the good nature Of other American
| travellers 20 help them on.
il gentleman told me no. long since
! that in his year abroad lie had always
some one besides his wife On his hands.
Now it was q eountrywoman absolutely
alone, now n pair OF young girls, now
an invalid with pretty daughter whom
she had no strength to ehaperon.
There is even book recently adyer-
tised as the doings of two girls alone
abroad. Nov, We have no wish to re-
call the proprieties OF thirty years ago,
when woman could hardly make a
hundred-mile journey alone; but there
is limit here, as everywhere. of good
sense and prudenoe.-L:vpiacost's Mag-
Uy;ue